New York

Medical students skip class to protest the repeal of Obamacare in front of the Fox News building in Midtown, Manhattan. Photo by Sophie Herbut

In front of the Fox News building on Avenue of the Americas this evening, a band of mostly medical students in white coats, huddled together and protested against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act as cars zoomed by next to them, some honking in agreement.

“We believe that it’s important to protect people’s healthcare,” said Alex Gomez, a fourth-year medical student. “And protecting the ACA is the first step to doing that.”

It was beginning to turn dark as another large group of medical students crossed the streets to join the crowd already in place. Their signs were colorful and creative, some quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, but the most common sign had a simple message: do no harm.

“I went into medicine so I could help people who are in pain and who needed help,” Gomez, 31, said. “We as doctors can prescribe medications, give appointment, we can perform surgery but unless we work on changing the laws we can’t be sure out patients stay healthy.”

Trump has made it his initiative to repeal the ACA, or Obamacare, since his presidential campaign. This protest comes after Trump signed an executive order to “minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens of the Act.” Many people believe this is the first step in completely repealing the ACA, leaving millions uninsured.

Gomez said that while the ACA is not perfect, it is still more comprehensive than anything be proposed to replace it. He said he would like to see it reformed, not repealed.

Toby Cohen, a third-year medical student, said that the repercussions of repealing Obamacare would affect his sister who is self-employed. Without the ACA, his sister’s insurance rate would be much more expensive than that of an employee of a large organization.

Toby Cohen, 29, keeps his sister in mind as he protests the repeal of Obamacare. She is self-employed and would have a more expensive insurance rate without the ACA. Photo By Sophie Herbut

“Insurance premiums are cheaper when you buy in bulk,” Cohen, 29, said. “It is expensive for a lot of people but the other options are much more expensive.”

The other options would either be in purchasing insurance individually or going without it and paying for hospital bills.

“People without insurance don’t see their doctors regularly,” said Cohen. “They can end up in the emergency room and end up bankrupt paying those bills.”

Many have predicted tragedies that could happen if the ACA is repealed and it is not unreasonable to think the worst when someone’s life is at risk.

“There is literature that says that if the ACA is repealed 43,000 people will die,” Gomez said.

That statistic is what inspired the protesters to drop on the sidewalk suddenly, lie down and stay quiet for a few minutes, feigning death.

Protestors fall to the floor to symbolize the “43,000 people [who] will die” if the ACA is repealed. Photo By Sophie Herbut

Two women who had stumbled upon the protest stood on the sidelines. They were an older couple who said that they knew if they “head to the Trump tower, [they] would find a protest.”

“If they don’t have the ACA, the hospitals will eat the cost and the people will go bankrupt,” Donna Templeton, 69, said.

She works as a nurse practitioner in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey in the mental health and addiction department. Templeton said many of her patients receive Medicaid and without it the entire department would probably be in danger.

“If the mental health patients lose their insurance they don’t get their medicine,” she said.

Templeton said that if they get rid of the pre-existing conditions clause of the ACA, her wife, Sandra Powers, might be in trouble.

“I got back problems, I have an eye condition,” Powers, 58, said. “Where am I going to go?”

Powers said she’s disagreed with politicians in the past but it’s never been this divisive before but she says that she continues to protest and fight for her grandkids.

“I feel like they’re systematically trying to get rid of human rights,” she said.

Mary Mountain stands outside with her Hillary sign, which has made her a pariah in her small town. Photo by Hattie Burgher

In the small town of Belfast, New York, population 1,600, Jim and Mary Mountain have become outcasts in recent weeks, shunned by their neighbors. Their sin: they are the only residents with a “Hillary” sign on their front lawn.

“We are kind of the exception to the rule,” chuckled Mary, 80, a retired postmaster and a lifelong resident of the town. “My daughter’s friend drove all the way from Rochester to Friendship and the only Hilary sign she saw was on our lawn.”

The Mountains live right along the major road in the area, Route 19, so if you need to get anywhere in the county, chances are you will pass by their yard.

Her husband Jim, now 82 and also retired, worked for Dresser-Rand, an industrial equipment supplier, and served on the Belfast Town Board. In his 12 years of service, he was the only Democrat.

Belfast is located in Allegany County, the third poorest county in the State. The county’s population is around 47,000 people, and its per capita income is $20,000 a year. Though economically poor, Allegany is rich with rolling hills, dairy farms, and pick-up trucks. According to the New York State Board of Elections, there are twice as many registered Republicans than Democrats in Allegany County.

So why do the Mountains vote left in a region that is a predominantly conservative? Jim says that he believes the Democrats are “for the poor guys, they are the first ones to help out the small guy.” He continued, “I don’t believe in giving everything to the rich, I’ve always been a Democrat for that reason.”

Mary said that she doesn’t understand why a lot of people don’t trust Hillary. “I think she’s a good person and they have given her a lot of trouble to get to where she is today.”

The Mountains, who are elderly and rely on many medications, fear that if Trump gets elected he will abolish Social Security and Medicare. “Those are good programs,” said Jim. “It would kill us if we didn’t have the Medicare. It would take everything else we got, it’s a big help.”

Their neighbors have not reacted well to the couple’s Hillary sign. “Yeah, they holler at us,” said Jim, who seemed to brush it off easily. However, Mary has experienced more severe taunts. One day she was out retrieving her mail at the end of their gravel driveway when a driver in a big truck yelled “F–K YOU!” at her. “I’m surprised someone hasn’t shot bullets through it yet,” said Mary of the sign.

The Mountain’s sign has certainly caused a stir in the area.

“I don’t know them, but I think it’s stupid to vote for Hillary,” said neighbor Anne Chamberlain,30 a stay-at-home mother and a registered Republican. “She scares me and I don’t have a good feeling about her. She reminds me of Hitler.” said Chamberlain.

Asked why she plans to vote for Trump, Chamberlain responded, “I guess he is the less of two evils.”

Darlene Redance, 34, another neighbor, is aware of the Hillary sign and does not approve.

“I don’t like it, I just don’t want Hillary as president. I don’t like her, she should be in jail,” said Redance, “I think Trump will bring this world where it needs to be.” She does not understand why the Mountains approve of Hillary, adding, “I’m confused about that one, doesn’t make any sense to me.”

A little bit further north along Route 19 lives Chuck Babbitt, a crop and dairy farmer. Babbitt, 63, is very enthusiastic about the GOP candidate and is baffled that his nearby neighbors don’t feel the same way.

“I think everybody ought to be voting for Trump,” said Babbitt. “I’m voting of Trump because I don’t want Hillary.”

Babbitt believes that Hillary would be just the same as President Obama.

“Obama doubled the debt in his term, where was the change we were supposed to be believe in?” said Babbitt. “I think he has been one of the worst presidents ever.”

Chamberlain, Redance, and Babbitt couldn’t exactly articulate reasons why they believe that Trump will help the residents of Allegany County and the country as a whole. Asked why Republican candidates are good for farmers and people in poorer counties, Babbitt replied “I don’t know about that one, I haven’t thought about it.” Chamberlain said that Trump wants to bring back the “Old America.” But what does that look like? “Basically before Obama” said Chamberlain.

Being a Democrat in a small town is like showing up to an Adidas PR Party decked out in Nike apparel. The Mountains are surrounded by people who may never see this side of the coin.

Residents of rural areas tend to vote Republican, a perpetual reflection of the urban-rural divide in politics. According to a an NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll, Trump leads Hillary 64% to 27% in rural areas across the states. Trump particularly does well among older, white Americans. Considering both Jim and Mary are in their 80s and white, they are defeating yet another stereotype.

Just as the Republicans in the town can’t wrap their heads around how the Mountains can vote for Hillary, the Mountains can’t wrap their heads around how their neighbors can be for Trump. “I have no idea why people are voting for him in this community” laughed Mary. “Maybe it’s because he has driven into people’s heads that Hillary is evil.”

Even though Jim is used to being outnumbered by his conservative neighbors (He and Mary both voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012), he is surprised by the large number of Trump signs he sees in his neighborhood.

“I don’t understand how there are so many. He has said so many things that are just off the cuff, not things that you would want to hear from a future president,” said Jim.

“Anybody that could vote for Trump could vote for that dog right there,” said Jim pointing to their dog, Milly. His wife interjected quickly, “Milly probably wouldn’t vote for him either!”

The Hoboken Terminal is a large transportation hub for commuters into Manhattan. During rush hour this morning a commuter train crashed into the terminal, killing one and injuring over 100. Photo by Jennifer Cohen

A NJ Transit train crashed into the Hoboken, NJ Terminal killing one and injuring over 100 as it came speeding through the terminal during rush hour this morning, officials said.

During rush hour around 8:30 AM, a commuter NJ Transit train traveling from Spring Valley, NY to Hoboken, NJ entered the Hoboken Terminal at a high speed smashing through the barriers meant to slow it down and into the waiting area wall where it finally stopped. Gov Chris Christie of New Jersey and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, flew into Pier A Park in Hoboken on their helicopters at 2 PM to brief the public on the situation as they work together to find out exactly what happened and to prevent an accident like this again.

“We don’t know what happened or why it happened,” said Gov. Cuomo. “The train obviously came in at too high of a speed.”

They are looking at the engineer of the train to see if he is at fault. He is in the hospital with serious injuries, but is cooperating with officials during the investigation, said Gov. Christie.

Hoboken resident Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, was killed, the State Medical Examiner’s office said. She had been struck by debris.

The Hoboken Terminal is a major transportation hub for commuters into Manhattan. The historic terminal was built in 1907 and serves nine NJ Transit rail lines, various NJ Transit Bus lines, the PATH train into Manhattan, and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail.

“Anytime there is a disruption to the Hoboken terminal it’s a major event here,” said Juan Melli, the Communications Manager for the city of Hoboken. “Fifty-six percent of our residents take public transportation to work every day. Unfortunately, the one victim that passed away is a Hoboken resident.”

Abby Rivers, a Hoboken resident and local business owner, was on her way to the gym at 8:45 AM, on Sinatra Drive, just a few blocks from the terminal, when a friend in Connecticut texted her to see if she was ok. She had no idea what her friend was talking about and wanted to find out more, so she kept walking to the gym.

“I get to the gym here and a lot of the management was out front and they said that there was possibly a shooting or a bombing,” said Rivers. “There was already police activity her and they weren’t letting people in the gym unless they had their membership out. Then a woman comes over and said that it was a train that derailed. She said she was on the platform when it happened and she was really shaken up and said there was a lot of blood.”

Rivers said she also reached out to a friend who commutes through the station from Fairlawn, NJ to see if she was ok. Her friend just missed the crash by 15 minutes as she transferred to the PATH train.

Ben Rose, 18, of Short Hills, NJ, was walking out of the station when the train crashed.

“I was probably a few 100 feet away,” said Rose. “I just heard this huge crash, it sounded like a bomb blew up in the train station, then I looked back and there was this huge flash of light and I heard screaming and everyone was telling me to run, so we all ran pretty far.”

Officials said all NJ Transit trains will be affected as there is structural damage to the station. But the PATH train from Manhattan is open as there is no damage to that station.

“People that live in Hoboken will be able to get home, people that live away from Hoboken, good luck, the best to ya,” said Eddy Santrangrillo, of Howell, NJ, a maintenance worker for the PATH train.

A Franklin Delano High School’s students drawing of the 9/11 attacks hangs in a social studies classroom. The Bensonhurst high school teaches 9/11 every year. Photo by Julie Liao.

It’s just after noon on Friday at Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School, in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Twenty seven students swarmed into their stuffy, 11th grade social studies class.

This was their last social studies class before the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that changed their city and their world. Michael Scherer, 38, their teacher, planned to teach his annual 9/11 class as he had been doing for the past five years.

“Raise your hand if you heard the word virtue before? What does it mean?” he asked the class.

He defined virtue as “doing what is right for the common good and expecting nothing in return.”

Scherer started a discussion about whether people do good deeds out of their natural kindness or for payback. He asked the students for their thoughts and the response was spilt down the middle.

“The point of today’s lesson is to kind of prove that wrong,” he said of those who believed payback was a reason to do good. Scherer had a very personal story to share about virtue and doing good for nothing in return.

Scherer’s father-in-law, Vincent J. Albanese, a veteran firefighter, was among thousands of heroic first responders, who rushed to the World Trade Center and helped to rescue trapped workers after the two planes crashed into the towers. For several months after the attack, he supported clean up efforts at ground zero.

But the toxic dust made Albanese sick, Scherer said. In 2010, he died of bladder cancer. He was 63.

“I watched him pretty much die,” he said.

Scherer isn’t the only teacher who emphasizes 9/11 education at the school. All the social studies teachers at FDR high school are required to teach 9/11 in their curriculum.

Michael Scherer, 38, social studies teacher of Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School. He has been teaching 9/11 to high school students for five years. Photo by Julie Liao.

In fact, the first comprehensive 9/11 education plan for teenagers in New York City was released by a nonprofit group in 2009. Two years later, cooperating with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the Department of Education of NYC provided online teaching materials for students from kindergarten to high school. Through stories, videos and interactive activities, the students would learn about the attacks in four parts, “community and conflicts”, “historical impact”, “heroes and services” and “memory and memorialization”.

But since it is not mandatory, not all schools teach it.

FDR high school administrators believe it is an important part of history and should not be ignored.

“We teach them those events and also some of the historical context in which they occurred to raise awareness about not only global terrorism,but about the resiliency of the American people after those events occurred,” said Christine Imbemba, the assistant principal of this school as well as a social studies teacher.

But 45 minutes is not enough to study 9/11. Although both Imbemba and Scherer said they are more than willing to spend the whole school day teaching 9/11, they have to comply with the school’s curriculum schedule.

After the discussion, Scherer had his students watch the documentary, “The Man in the Red Bandanna.” It is the story of Welles Crowther, 24-year-old equities trader working on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center during the attack. Somehow he found an escape route and led three trips up and down the stairs, even carrying survivors. His body was found in the rubble six moths later.

“… like what if that was me, what if that was my son, what if that was my brother,” said David Ismailati, 16, a student about the documentary. The teen believes terrorism is still a big threat.

Ismailati said he may do an oral history as his 9/11 homework assignment. His father was working about ten blocks away during the attack.

“He had to walk all the way from around the World Trade Center back to Brooklyn because there was no subway,’’ he said. “He came back covered in debris completely.”

Despite the limited time and resources, Scherer said he believes his students will understand his theme of selfless virtue and 9/11.

“I know it was just like a small message, but I think it might resonate,” he said.

On a recent downtown R train subway ride, the train pulled into the station, the doors opened and then riders heard two men speaking in unison: “Ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the interruption. Is there anyone on this train who is hungry, especially children?”

Just like that – free food is given to the homeless and hungry as stated on their gray T-shirts. Five men push three carts with sandwiches, granola bars, fruit and juices and gave them to anyone who asked.

“You don’t have to be homeless to be hungry,” said Rolando “Divine” Farrow, the founder of Food For The Homeless, whose mission is to feed as many hungry New Yorkers as he can.

Three years ago he was hungry and homeless himself. A stranger on a subway gave him a sandwich. This simple gesture led him on a path of wanting to help others in similar life situations.

Divine is on a public assistance program and lives in the Bronx. Donations on the subway and on the streets are the only sources of money for his mission. He does not travel alone. His colleague from Staten Island Henry Thomas, 38, and others help him feed hungry New Yorkers every day. Thomas lived in a shelter for seven years before he met Divine two years ago. Now they feed nearly 200 people every day.

“We have people who depend on us. They look for us to come by,” said Thomas.

Early in the morning, six days a week, they prepare sandwiches, fill each of three cooler carts with nearly $100 worth of supplies and start to make their way through the subway web.

“The main thing we are trying to do is to give nutritious food,” said Divine.

Along with fresh sandwiches they share information about shelters, where to get a free hot meal and free clothing.

“I believe that one person can make a difference in the world and everyone should at least try,” said Thomas.